Brazil–MFP: Rape During the World Cup and FIFA’s Complicit Silence
We hereby share an unofficial translation of an article published by Movimento Feminino Popular (MFP) on August 28.
Ryan Mendes, captain of the Cape Verdean Football Federation (FCF), assaulted and raped a Brazilian interpreter during a preparatory phase for the FIFA World Cup. iDespite the various pieces of evidence the victim managed to gather, even though the heinous crime occurred during one of the world’s biggest sporting events, none of it was enough for FIFA, the United States (one of the host countries of this World Cup), or Cape Verde, to impose even the slightest punishment on the rapist. Nothing new here: a professional soccer player raping with impunity! This is further proof that it is not in the interest of imperialism and its failed institutions to combat violence against women and other forms of sexual oppression, since the reactionary ruling classes are interested in keeping women subjugated, no matter how much they crow the opposite in their media monopolies, with petty-bourgeois feminist discourse and their supposed “individual freedom of women” within capitalism. It is urgent that truly democratic and revolutionary movements and people launch with greater vigor the revolutionary slogan: The emancipation of women can only be the work of the world proletarian revolution!
Ryan Mendes assaulted and raped the Cape Verde national team’s interpreter on March 27, 2026, during World Cup friendly matches in New Zealand. The New Zealand Football Association, organizer of this preparatory stage of the tournament, had hired a Brazilian woman who has lived in that country for nine years. She was on duty at the hotel where the Cape Verde team was staying, at the disposal of this delegation; that night, she was called to her room and opened the door thinking it was some kind of work-related emergency. But it was the player, who broke into the room, assaulted the Brazilian woman by choking, punching, and biting her, and then raped her.
While still at the hotel, the Brazilian woman photographed her bruises; the next day, she reported the crime to the only woman in the Cape Verdean delegation. When she returned home, she went to a clinic specializing in victims of sexual violence, which documented injuries to her breasts, neck, lips, scalp, buttocks, and vulva, and stated that the victim had come close to death due to strangulation.
She and her husband filed a police report against Ryan Mendes at a local police station and officially reported the crime to FIFA. Also in April, representatives from the Cape Verdean Football Federation contacted the Brazilian woman by phone in a call that lasted 45 minutes. Later, the victim sent messages to three representatives of the African national team, who stated that the Cape Verdean Football Federation had no connection to the incident, and that it was a personal problem for the player. Faced with the complicit silence and inaction of the official football institutions, more than a month after the heinous crime, the victim and her husband sent extrajudicial notices to the Cape Verdean Football Federation and FIFA, including a report, evidence, and a request that the player be prevented from participating in the World Cup.
“These situations happen all the time in the world of football”
The silence of these organizations was only broken after an article denouncing the crime was published on June 27 in the newspaper O Globo. Only then did FIFA issue an official statement, three months after the rape. Two days later, Mario Semedo, president of the Cape Verdean Football Federation (FCF), gave a statement to a Cape Verdean TV station. He lied that they had never been officially notified, invoked the presumption of innocence of the player, called for calm, and spewed profanities: “These situations happen all the time in the world of football. The players are focused and determined.” The Cape Verdean national team didn’t even remove Ryan Mendes as captain! The FCF was the “darling of the World Cup” and didn’t limit press coverage of any of its activities, but after the crime garnered worldwide attention, it reduced exposure only to what FIFA requires by contract and censored questions about the rape at a press conference on July 2. A colleague even defended the rapist in a video interview: “He spoke with the group, nothing that appears in the news is true. That’s the only thing I know, that’s the only thing I want to say.” The FCF was welcomed home with a celebration. After all, the African team’s unprecedented run couldn’t be overshadowed by yet another act of sexual violence against a woman!
Another situation that “happens all the time in the world of football” is doubting the victims’ word, and accusing women who report violence committed by players of being usurpers and liars, since it is almost impossible to record these crimes, which mostly occur in private locations. According to this discourse, star players are also easy targets for the “pregnancy scam.” Poor things! These bearded men don’t know that having sex without a condom can lead to pregnancy! Sportsmen even have the “right” to get women drunk and drugged to reduce their ability to resist harassment, or perhaps even to beat, rape, and murder the woman who ends up pregnant, why not? After all, they work hard on the field to bring joy to the people. These are cases like those of Cuca, Bruno, Robinho, and Daniel Alves.
Absurd thoughts like this are rampant in bars, buses, and trains, in the comment sections of news articles, and on social media. And they don’t spring out of nowhere. The maintenance of private ownership of the means of production and its resulting oppression of women, upon which a superstructure is erected that profanes a “deficient feminine nature,” objectifies and commodifies the female body, vulgarizes romantic relationships and human relationships in general; all this composes a breeding ground that justifies the most ignominious humiliations, aggressions, rapes, and murders of women around the world. And this only grows as the crisis of decomposition of this imperialist system based on the exploitation of man by man deepens, and as all social and human ills intensify as a direct product of its complete failure. They are even more justified when they come from figures in football, a sport that exerts such a strong cultural influence on peoples and nations, since we are talking about the most popular sport in the world.
Class struggle in football
Historically, reactionary ruling classes have always used art, culture, and sports as powerful means of ideological and political oppression to conceal the exploitation of man by man, demoralize the most conscious and combative leaders of the people, and instill pacifism, fear, pessimism, and capitulation.
In this 2026 World Cup, the brazenness of the Trump administration and FIFA was so great that it laid bare for the world the unprecedented crisis of decay of imperialism. The players and coaching staff of the Iranian national team were prohibited by the US government from staying overnight in the United States, which greatly restricted the rest and concentration time of the most honorable and spirited team in this World Cup. The first African football referee selected for the FIFA World Cup, Omar Artan, from Somalia, was prevented from entering the United States, even though he had a valid visa, simply because he belonged to a people that the villainous Trump always declared to be “trash.” The Senegalese national team was subjected to a humiliating search on the airport tarmac. The Haitian national team, which Trump called a “shithole country,” faced great difficulty entering the United States. The same happened to Aymen Hussein, the main player of the Iraqi national team, who was detained and interrogated for 7 hours. Karine Alves, a Black Brazilian journalist, was a victim of racism by US immigration agents, who inspected her hair in a harsh manner.
But the imperialists do not apply the same rigor when dealing with their leaders and those accused of sexual and racist crimes. Besides Ryan Mendes, other players prosecuted for sexual crimes are participating in the FIFA World Cup, such as Hakimi from Morocco, Thomas Partey from Ghana, and Kaishu Sano from Japan.
Before the start of the match between Germany and Curaçao, Australian video referee Shaun Evans posed for an official photo making a white supremacist gesture; FIFA didn’t punish him because they didn’t see anything wrong with it, and the fascist even mocked us, saying it was a “nervous tic.” FIFA invented an award just to honor Donald Trump for his “peace efforts”; shortly after, he initiated new imperialist aggressions against the heroic Iranian nation. FIFA also overturned the justified expulsion of a US player at Trump’s request, who, incidentally, it’s worth remembering, has been accused more than once of rape and sexual exploitation crimes, a faithful partner of the disgusting Epstein on his island of horror for women and paradise for misogynistic billionaires, a place of abject sexual exploitation of women, including underage girls.
As an accomplice to the genocide Israel is committing in Gaza, FIFA did not prevent this invading country from participating in the World Cup, even though its genocidal bombings have killed more than 400 Palestinian soccer players.
But, proportional to the decay of imperialism, the resistance of the oppressed peoples and nations of the world is advancing. Not even the full economic, political, military, and media apparatus of the reactionary institutions, in the largest and most lucrative World Cup in history, managed to stop the manifestations of resistance, which express the deepest desires of the masses. Starting with the simplest example: during the press conference, where the Cape Verdean team only allowed questions about football, three journalists ignored the censorship and asked about the crime, the only action against the rapist so far in this World Cup.
Mexican fans in Tijuana, the city where the Iranian national team stayed, bid them farewell with a storm of applause. Similarly, in the United States, the Iranian players were received with great hospitality in every city they visited, according to the Iranian national team itself.
The players on Egypt’s national team entered the field with the Palestinian flag emblazoned on their uniforms. In the post-match press conference after their penalty shootout victory against Australia, Egypt coach Hossam Hassan said: “This victory is for the Egyptian people, for the Palestinian people, and for all the Arab people.” Regarding Suleiman Al-Obeid, known as the Palestinian Pelé, who was assassinated in an Israeli bombing in the Gaza Strip, Hassan challenged the imperialists: “ Can you tell us how he died, where, and why?” And further: “If anyone has never felt the suffering of the Palestinian people, it’s because they lack humanity.” When Egypt was eliminated from the World Cup in a match against Argentina, the coach unfurled the Palestinian flag and protested against Argentine fans displaying the Zionist flag. Hassan and the Egypt’s team were warmly greeted by their people, who welcomed them with numerous Palestinian flags.
In addition to Egypt’s coach, players from Morocco and Spain, and fans from various national teams, also raised Palestinian flags in several matches of this World Cup, starting from the early rounds. In the match between Bosnia and Canada, held in Toronto, fans and activists from both countries joined in protests with marches, chants, posters, and t-shirts bearing the slogans: “Jews for a free Palestine,” “Kick Israel out of FIFA,” and “Freedom for Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safiya ,” kidnapped by the invading army in Gaza in 2024.
The heroic Palestinian people in Gaza watched the World Cup amid the rubble and showed their support with paintings and posters. Palestinian Mohammed al-Wahidi, a worker and activist who helped set up screens to show the games, was murdered in a bombing by the invading Israeli army on July 7, shortly before the start of the match between Egypt and Argentina.
In Mexico, the people confronted the police in several combative protests led by teachers – on strike to demand salary increases and pension rights – and by relatives of the more than 133,000 disappeared, who search for their loved ones without help from the old State. The uprisings were proportional to the public and private spending for the World Cup, which totaled 8.2 billion USD, yet were not enough to shame Claudia Sheinbaum, the first woman to preside over Mexico.
The people and nation of Iran are defeating the imperialist war with their just war of national resistance on the battlefield and also in the World Cup, as evidenced by the letters left by the Iranian national team: “We come from IRAN. From a land that, for thousands of years, has placed honor above victory. For us, football is not only a competition for results; it is a test of character. Perhaps points can be won in many ways, but respect cannot. Perhaps a team can advance from a group, but only through fairness and honor can one stand tall before history. Fair play ii is not just a line in football’s rules; it is the soul of the game. IRAN, always standing tall.”
It is up to the oppressed peoples and nations of the world to firmly follow the revolutionary path in each country, which will destroy this old world and build the new world, where football will be freed from the clutches of the oppressive classes and no woman will ever again be assaulted or subjugated because of her condition as an oppressed and exploited class.
i FIFA (Federation of International Football Associations) – Federation of International Football Associations.
ii An expression derived from an English term meaning fair play, respect for the rules of the game.
